Reviewed by Eric Saeger This Gainsville-based unplugged-punk unit would be a perfect warm-up for Mumford & Sons, from their banjo-banging hillbilly depravity to their raspy, drunken vocals, which reveal these fellers as heavy users of Kings of Leon (there are dead-on imitations of Caleb Followill, most prominently on ‘Always’, which will undoubtedly pose problems in […]

Reviewed by Eric Saeger Honky-reggae-ized Beatles tribute band from Maryland set up like a NOLA jazz octet. Beatles fans are universally despised creatures, still gobbling up anything to do with a band that broke up forty years ago; so this is for them, as only they could find a cute one-drop family-barbecue version of ‘Octopus’s […]

Reviewed by Eric Saeger Comprised of big-deal sidemen who’ve been involved with everyone from Alicia Keys to The Drifters, this project makes arena-rock that should be palatable to Minus the Bear fans, which is not to say that there are that many curveballs here, but the band’s retro-ness does exhibit the notion of a plan […]

Reviewed by Eric Saeger Someone has to be responsible for the orchestral backgrounds provided to Sting and Björk… wait, it’s this guy, who did an LP of originals with the London Symphony in 1997 titled Epiphany, and has since been busy working with the small-potatoes mentioned above. This time the composer swivels toward the jazz […]

Reviewed by Eric Saeger I dunno, Scandal meets zzzzz, um, huh, something or other, and at some zzzzzz points there’s cello, like a bunch of shapeless ’80s-pop B-sides had a polite outdoor Chardonnay-tasting and Perfect Circle were throwing Nerf balls at them from the bushes. Bloom, a Washington state native (if I’m reading the random-factoids […]

Reviewed by Eric Saeger Jeez, man, the way this album was described, I was expecting something that wasn’t completely mediocre – “Abba pop with chainsaws”, I think it was. Instead, we get the remains of Seattle band Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head worrying away at the too-optimistic sounds of Los Campesinos and all those crappy Bowery […]

Reviewed by Eric Saeger With a pro PR effort breathing new life into its perceived relevance, Brazilian jazz guitarist Lucena’s late-2010 live collection (mainly comprised of Latin classics such as ‘Corcovado’) will reach many more ears, and deservedly so. This is further proof, not that any was needed, that Latin guys just cold own chill-guitar. […]

Reviewed by Eric Saeger Famed for his apologetic, unplugged cover of Outkast’s ‘Hey Ya’, Obadiah Parker is the adopted name of Phoenix busk-rocker Mat Weddle, who apparently popped in at the Howard Stern show, I’m assuming to talk about his addictions (now that Stern’s on pay-radio, isn’t it hilarious watching him squirm while trying to […]

Reviewed by Eric Saeger This Chicago neo-hardrock four-piece has a tough nut to crack, mainly because they do stuff correctly. They’re equal parts Gravity Kills (the on-the-phone-patch hollering part), Offspring (the singer’s a dead-ringer when in normal mode) and Avenged Sevenfold (the riff part), in other words they’re pretty much the perfect prescription for white […]

Reviewed by Eric Saeger Despite the fact that the words “awaken the tides” look like they came together by way of a heavy metal album title randomizer (I know, I know, by “tides” they probably mean “legions of downtrodden blue-collar dudes who’ve finally had enough of The Man’s oppression and are about to, um, I […]

Reviewed by Eric Saeger This Chicago duo-or-however-many-some invented Tosh.0 for the goth scene before there was a Tosh.0. They can be forgiven, then, for fixating on old NES games and internet memes the way twelve-year-old boys worship virus-riddled free-porn sites. Singer Brian DarkNES (that right there is an adorable little jab at Skinny Puppy, in […]

Reviewed by Eric Saeger Every six months or so some foreigner finds my eclectic, willy-nilly output and assumes I’d be super-psyched to receive a big-ass stack of random LPs from their country. Poland, Belarus, Singapore, whatever – they’re always big stacks, CD-case-inserts written in foreign languages all crimped into thin plastic sleeves to save on […]

Reviewed by Eric Saeger As a Californian, Angela Correa routinely winds up on TV and movie soundtracks (Ugly Betty et al, the vocal double for Darlene in Dewey Cox), which is something to envy unless you factor in the conformity that’s required to succeed in such pursuits. Her surf-dream-pop band’s first full-length (she’s done shoegazier […]

Reviewed by Eric Saeger The eighth album and third Hopeless Records release from this Berkeley, CA punk crew finds them relaxed in their age but not hurting for slam-dunk old school emo melodies. Matter of fact, there are countless newer bands who would have made one of half these tunes into the showpiece track of […]

Reviewed by Eric Saeger Montreal-based Mierau has her google-eyed-chick moves down, but with so many google-eyed chicks around there’s little to do to set oneself apart from the pack but slow it down a little more and get more spacey, which she accomplishes in ‘Hushabye’, a series of half-whispered loops over backward-mask loops and all […]

Reviewed by Eric Saeger Being the remaining contingent of Tito Puente’s band, Mambo Legends Orchestra is essentially the Latin reply to today’s Count Basie Orchestra, aiming to preserve the vibrancy of 40s/50s core mambo and salsa – there’s no better band to do the job, obviously, than the one on this two-disker. Frankie Vazquez’ heavy/slithery […]

Reviewed by Eric Saeger With Florence and the Machine making Grace Slick cool again, it’s important to pay attention to every bunch of second-hand hippy fashion plates that barge in. Album opener ‘Ferris Wheel’ dredges up every 60s acid-pop trick in the book, including an irresistible Spanky And Our Gang vocal round and phase-shifting the […]

Reviewed by Eric Saeger My great hopes for this jazz-guitar record were negated, but that’s a preference thing, so don’t let that stop you if you’re into standards as examined by subdued, dreamy, barely-plugged guitar. Dida Pelled studied at Thelma Yellin High School Of The Arts in Tel Aviv, the go-to school for jazz talent […]

Reviewed by Eric Saeger What rapturous justice that this Sinatra-loving dentist (from Connecticut!) has released a terrible vanity album that I can torture with impunity! Just like all of you people, I’m staring down the barrel of tens of thousands of dollars of dental work – do all those guys honestly think people have brand […]

Reviewed by Eric Saeger Though mostly a one-man operation run by a Julian Casablancas solo band associate, this project has a money trail leading to actor Tobey Maguire, who funded it up to the time it was picked up by a new record label from Pierre de Reeder, itself bankrolled in turn by de Reeder’s […]

Reviewed by Eric Saeger Last Winter have a lot of things not-going for them. One, they’re from Florida. Worse, they’re from Orlando. And last, they’re trying to find safe haven for their unadventurous rawk in the plain-vanilla waters of the emo-rock Bermuda Triangle, hoping to survive the soulless vortex that’s swallowed so many Vans Tour […]

Reviewed by Eric Saeger This column offers safe haven for all trip-hop comers, even this debatable effort from the stubbornly DIY San Fran threesome. Obviously the fetish is there, being that they kinda-sorta named the band after a Massive Attack tune, so points for fanboyism get chalked up from the get-go. But the electronics are […]